


To Nurture a Garden

by Oreocat155338



Series: Reincarnation-Verse [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Other, Reincarnation!AU, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-23 05:36:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20003167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oreocat155338/pseuds/Oreocat155338
Summary: Since Sakura joined the Academy... She's had... Interesting "dreams" (nightmares, more like).***Sakura had always been good with plants.She just had a green thumb. That's what everyone said but-She had a way of - almost breathing life back into plants.("Maybe it's just me, but Naruto is Tobirama's reincarnation in this AU so could Sakura be Hashirama's ? ( in other words Asura's latest incarnation)("This might explain her Mokuton.")





	To Nurture a Garden

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ThaoNguyen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThaoNguyen/gifts).



Sakura had always been good with plants.

She just had a green thumb. That's what everyone said but-

She had a way of - almost breathing life back into plants. And she enjoyed it too-

Until the Academy. Until she learned of the Senju, and, more importantly, the Shodaime. Until she heard the word-

"Mokoton."

That night she had nightmares about crushing people with plants. Of laughing as they died - of facing a giant nine-tailed fox -

Of death all around her and a redhead and - and the Nidaime at her side.

She gave away all her plants and tried her best to be _normal_ \- but it never stopped. The dreams kept coming.

She'd never had them before, so why now?

She ignored them and continued on with her life - having good dreams and bad ones - trying her best to pretend that she was normal. That she was weak. If she was strong Bad Things would happen, she was sure of it.

After all, she'd gotten her hands on all of the stories she could find about the Shodaime. He'd lived such a hard life-

That's not why she'd joined the Academy. That's not why she would become a ninja.

  
Then she met Naruto. She reminded her in ways of the Nidaime - not the one she read about in history, the one she dreamt about. The one that had followed her (him?) until they were separated, who always was the _best of the best_.

  
And Sasuke, who reminded her of _Her_ Madara.

  
Hers, not the one they read about in the history books. The one that wanted peace for his family. Who had been lost after he lost his brother.

Then, when he lost his family, he was more like _History's_ Madara. And she tried all the more to reach him, to remind him that he could make a new family - just as she and Her Madara had, on that riverbank-

He pulled away, _angry and_ bitter, just like the Madara who had turned away when their fathers arrived.

She hadn't stopped trying, but she hadn't made any progress.

  
Until she was put on a team with him and Naruto.

Naruto, who had seen the strength she had hidden inside and pushed both her and Sasuke to levels she hadn't thought she'd reach. 

Levels she'd been _afraid_ to reach.

And Sasuke had come out of his shell, slightly. He was more willing to listen to what she and Naruto had to say.

Not that Naruto had done much to help, but he had made a few comments that had gotten Sasuke thinking. Mostly about how some of the strongest shinobi had been felled by a number of shinobi.

But of all the stories he told, he hadn't touched upon the Nidaime's death. Sakura had brought it up a few times, but Naruto would frown and something akin to grief would enter his eyes.

She didn't bring it up anymore. Grief could turn a person to horrible things. Like Madara.

Like _her_. Her own grief had made her clam up, made her push her power as far from her as she could.

She wishes she'd paid attention to her brother to learn how he'd coped with grief - why was it only now she remembered how Tobirama had loved their brothers?

Then they were attacked in the Forest of Death by a _Sannin_. By Orochimaru of the Sannin, a traitor-

Then, in the chaos, she manages to hit him.

But he recovered faster than she expected and she knows that he's not going to hold back. Knows that her teammates can't save her-

  
And that's the catalyst. Wood erupts between her and the Sannin, saving her life. Out of the corner of her eye Naruto's own eyes are wide but he's already giving her instructions and-

She listens, because she hasn't spent this long listening to him only to stop now, and it feels _right_ , to use Mokoton like this.

Then Naruto gets bitten in Sasuke's place leaving something on his neck and then a jutsu - Raiton she absently notes - hit him, exploding or something, from the inside out.

It had taken some work to find a place to hole up, and she'd filled in the gaps using knowledge from her dream-life, but by the end of that she was exhausted.

But Sasuke proved that he'd listened to Naruto - or perhaps simply felt indebted to him - because he suggested healing him - even volunteering to do it himself.

So with Sasuke exhausted from the healing and Naruto still unconscious Sakura had to take her teammates sword and stay on guard until one of her boys had recovered enough to take it from her.

And, as luck would have it, she was the one who wound up being responsible for explaining to Naruto what he'd missed.

  
When the time came for the Prelims - something she hadn't been expecting. She'd thought that they'd get a chance to help Naruto heal before the Third Stage - Sasuke was the first of them to fight and it'd taken Naruto for her and Sasuke to figure out why Sasuke was losing.

Before she would've been embarrassed, but Naruto had hidden depths that they had barely touched upon.

Still, he did it in a way that no one would think that he and Sasuke got along and she wasn't sure that it was the _best_ idea but when all was said and done Sasuke was victorious and he whispered a word of thanks as they watched the next few fights.

When her turn had come she'd faced Ino and she was confident that this was a fight she could win. After all, Ino didn't have Naruto on her team, pushing her to get stronger and faster and better.

And while the rest of the teams may have been surprised at her victory, Naruto grinned, proud of her, and Sasuke gave her a small smile of pride too.

The next fight was _brutal_ , and if Sakura hadn't had Sasuke's hand on her arm, subtly holding her back, Sakura would've gone down there herself, rules or no.

And when Neji practically beat his own cousin into the ground she could practically feel Naruto's anger in the increase of humidity around them.

Even from where she was Sakura could see the glare trailing Neji as he returned to his team.

Then Naruto was called down and Sakura could see his tightly-bound pain as he stood lightly on his feet. When his opponent told him to quit, Naruto had grinned, as though confident in his victory.

Even though they _didn't know_ what she could do.

He'd even admitted that _he couldn't see straight_ and right there Sakura could see Hayate wanting to pull Naruto out of the fight - could see the Hokage's concern, and Kakashi-sensei's frown.

Watched as Kin seemingly multiplied herself and Naruto's gaze went _vacant_ (was he about to faint?) before he moved, pinning her to the wall, kunai at her throat.

After his opponent forfeit, Sakura could see the other rookies watching Naruto with new respect.

Then Naruto returned and _instantly_ lost consciousness but the medic said that aside from the wound he'd gotten in the forest he would be fine.

Then within a couple of days Naruto is _gone_ , leaving a note telling the Hokage about her Mokoton and mentioning that the Kazekage's chakra didn't feel right.

Then Kakashi brought her and Sasuke out of the village where she trained with Tenzo - who also had Mokoton, but it didn't feel quite right to use it like he did. 

When Naruto, completely healed, minus the scars, and the Kazekage's youngest returned with another of the Sannin - Tsaunde, who she remembered from her dreams as a little girl with big hopes for the future - just in time for the finals, Sakura was relieved.

Then came the Finals where Naruto showed off his water affinity and the invasion and Naruto somehow winding up getting chased around by the Nidaime Hokage who was trying to kill him.

Then he wound up with a possibly-fatal wound and Tsaunde took him off to heal him herself and she hoped that it would be enough.

  
Then Gaara let the cat out of the bag, telling them that Naruto was the Nidaime Hokage reborn, though he admitted that he wasn't sure how the two of them were in two different places at the same time.

And things fit together. She finally understood how Naruto was so like the Nidaime of her dreams.

And it explained something about her that she hadn't quite been able to find a word for.

Senju Hashirama had been her, but now she was Sakura.  
She was the God of Shinobi, Kohona's Shodaime, reborn.


End file.
